Immersed in an economic and political labyrinth, Venezuela faces the worst crisis of its modern history with an absent opposition and a regime determined to win re-election at all costs.
It was good that 19 OAS member states mildly condemned Maduro and his rushed elections, but don’t expect change until there’s greater collective action outside and inside the country.
Venezuela’s inevitably doomed plan to save its economy by issuing its own kleptocurrency may well undermine the fragile foundations of other booming cryptocurrencies.
The international community has turned to economic sanctions as a tool to force policy and even regime change. But they rarely work. So, is there an alternative?
By failing to tie a sanctions policy to demands for credible election observers in the October 15 elections, the international community bought more time for the Maduro government and sold out the opposition.
The Maduro government refused to invite standard, professional election observation groups to monitor Sunday’s balloting. Instead a previously unknown group, CEELA, showed up to praise the process. Who are they?
President Trump finally called out the Venezuelan government at the UN. Unfortunately, the way he did it isn’t helpful.
El año 2017 avanza de forma inexorable. Cada día que transcurre en Venezuela representa un día más del gobierno dictatorial de Nicolás Maduro. Durante agosto y al iniciarse septiembre se vive una suerte de pausa, tras varios meses de protestas y más de 150 muertos en durante el conflicto político en este año.
2017 has been Venezuelans’ toughest year. Neither inside opposition nor international action seem to break the dictatorship. Is there room for democratic transition in the near future?
Not only was Trump’s threat a diplomatic disaster, it also doesn’t make military or strategic sense as a use of U.S. military power.
